CPAP: The First Night

The CPAP machine was delivered yesterday.  The respiratory therapist arrived around 1:30 (30 minutes past nap time) and she showed me how to use and care for the machine.  Justin was sitting in my lap and Travis was standing next to me while she had pulled out the water reservoir to show me how to open it and clean it.  To get it out of the machine, you have to lift a door on the top and slide it out the front.  While it was open and we were talking, Justin pushed the door closed.  Travis pulled it up, Justin pushed it closed.  Then Travis pulled it up so hard that the pulled the door right off.  The respiratory therapist gasped quite audibly and froze.  When she regained her composure, she sputtered, "That has never happened before.  I am not sure it can go back on..."  She spent the next several minutes attempting to reattach it.  She finally did get it back on and she turned to Travis and said, "Don't ever do that again!"  He did one of those half laughs and stood very still the rest of the time.  He said he wouldn't touch it at all.  (And so far, he hasn't!)

She went through her whole spiel.  They sent another mask for Justin (appropriately called the "mini-me") which seems less cumbersome and might work better.  The hose attaches to the top and goes over the top of his head so it stays out of the way.  Here's how it looks on him.  It's really not too bad.  The one bad thing we discovered is that the mask kind of pulls whichever way the tube goes. 

The therapist tried to show me how to put it on Justin the very last thing before she left.  By this time it was 2:15 and way past nap time.  That did not go over very well.  She said that she had to do it so we did it quickly and then yanked it off.  I had planned to let him try it for nap, but there was no way he was having any of that so we put off trying it until night.

That night was the first night.  It took both my mother and me to get it on him.  Once it was on he didn't try to pull it off.  We put the machine on the floor at the foot of his bed.  We ran the hose around the headboard to come up the side by his pillow.  We learned that caused the mask to pull and the next night we put the hose through the slats in the headboard.  (Much better!)  I planned to sleep on the floor by his bed so I could be there when he needed me.  I had all my supplies:  kleenex for crying and nose-blowing following overnight hysterics, a flashlight to check the fit of the mask, and a clock to give me some idea of time.   It took him an hour to go sleep.  He went to sleep very peacefully, but then the fun began.  He woke up at least 17 times. (I lost count after that...)  And he would sit straight up in bed and flail his arms.  We had practiced breathing deep through his nose so we would do that to calm down and then I had to coax him to lay back down.  Some wakings were quick and others took several minutes.  He never tried to pull off the mask, but he wouldn't let me adjust it.  Since he had been so uncooperative when we were putting it on, I didn't think I got a good fit.  The hose pulled it off center and it was off his nose by morning.  He woke up around 6:15 and I had him lay in bed until 6:30 before I would let him get up.

The night really went the way I expected it to go.  It's just a question of how long it will take to improve.  Justin was really tired during the day but I hoped it would make for a better second night because he would be so tired.  I haven't had much time to blog because I have been with Justin whenever he is asleep ( I go to bed at 8 pm and we do naps together too.)  I will tell you how the next few nights go when I am more awake!